Despite the fact that part of the bloc’s institutional framework is still under construction, the government assures that joining this group of countries will serve as a platform to promote relations with the members and also with the rest of the world. “Negotiation capacity will be strengthened and our commercial and financing opportunities will increase,” they said from the Foreign Ministry.
New Development Bank
These opportunities include access to New Development Bank which is currently financing projects for about US$32.8 billion. Among them, the agency highlights on its official website the construction of 17,000 kilometers of roads, 820 bridges, 35,000 homes and more than 1,300 kilometers of infrastructure for water transport, among others.
Argentina will be formally incorporated into the BRICS from January 2024but official sources confirmed to Ámbito that the Conversations to obtain financing from the New Development Bank have already begun. They even revealed that aims to raise funds this year. In this sense, there is previous experience of countries that were able to access financing lines without being full members of the bloc, such as Egypt, Bangladesh and Uruguay.
The possibility of expanding access to credit is part of the urgency of the economic team. Another proposal also emerged from the summit held in South Africa, in this case from Brazil. After various options to finance the bilateral deficit were ruled out, Lula’s Finance Minister, fernando haddad proposed to employ yuan payments.
This could represent a temporary relief for Argentina, since with the disbursement of the International Monetary Fund, it will recover part of the renminbi that it had used to pay the organization itself weeks ago. These are funds that come from the currency exchange, which was recently expanded and which, as seen this year, can be used to pay for commercial operations.
In the Government they assure that the incorporation of Argentina to the bloc responds to a pragmatic and not an ideological agenda. “There is China, but also South Africa. We joined, and so did Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which have good ties to the United States. There is a diversity of views,” explained a diplomatic source. In any case, it is clear that the fundamental value of the countries that make up the BRICS is based on their wealth for the present and the future: energy, minerals and food.
Source: Ambito
